Discussion Questions for “The Ravine” Name______
Each person will be your table’s expert for one of these questions. You will thoroughly answer the question and share your response with your group. Your group will decide if you need to change or add to your response. Make sure you answer in complete sentences. Put a star next to your “expert” questions.
- Dialect is a form of language spoken in a specific place by a particular group of people. Pay special attention to dialect to make sure that you understand its meaning and use.
Reread lines 26-29. Write the examples of dialect. Restate the boys’ dialogue in standard English.
Examples of Dialect / Restate in standard EnglishHow did the use of dialect help you better understand the characters?
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2. Characters in a story have traits, or personal qualities, and motivations, or reasons why they do things, just as real people do. These elements as well as story events, contribute to a character’s development throughout a story.
Reread lines 38-53. Explain what you learned about Vinny’s feelings in these paragraphs. Support your answer with text evidence.
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3. Authors often reveal character traits through a character’s reactions to other characters and their ideas.
Reread lines 54-65. Explain what you think Vinny’s thoughts about the goddess reveal about him. Support your answer with text evidence.
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4. The setting of a story often affects a character’s development.
Reread lines 71-87. Cite words and phrases that indicate how the setting is making Vinny uneasy and afraid. Explain why your examples are making him uneasy and afraid.
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5. Readers learn much about a character’s personality from his or her actions and ideas. Readers can make inferences about a character’s traits by combining details from the story with their own knowledge and experience.
Reread lines 54-81. Describe Starlene’s personality based on what you read. Support your response with text evidence.
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6. Character development is how a character changes or become better known to the reader over the course of a story.
Reread lines 110-117. Identify another conflict that is affecting Vinny, and describe what this tells readers about Vinny’s personality. Support your answer with text evidence.
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7. Authors develop the traits of their main characters throughout a story, adding to and refining their personalities by revealing more and more details about them.
Reread lines 153-157. Identify new information that you have learned about Vinny.
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8. Authors develop character in a story by showing their actions and words and by describing their reactions to events and to other characters’ actions.
Reread lines 184-197. Explain Vinny’s idea that, “It was asking for it,” as a reaction to Starlene’s jump.
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9. Reread ;omes 189-197. Describe Joe-Boy’s personality, using both his actions and Vinny’s reaction to them.
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10. Authors use dialogue to create authentic characters and to show a character’s traits and development in a story.
Reread Starlene and Vinny’s conversation in lines 217-240. Summarize, or retell in your own words, the factors Vinny has been worrying about.
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11. Sometimes readers need to use what the author writes as well as their own knowledge and experience to understand a character more deeply.
Reread lines 267-271. Explain why Vinny has an urge to fly as he looks down into the ravine.
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12. One way authors develop characters is by describing thoughts and feelings the character has.
Reread lines 279-283. Discuss how these lines help explain about Vinny and his fears. Support your response with text evidence.
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